Sunday, September 16, 2012

August Osage County

Abster Productions: 9/7 – 9/30

If you wish to have a closer more intimate look at the Weston household
and its progeny than you got when the touring company came to town you should
get on over to The Dairy in Boulder.
The cast of "August Osage County" at The Dairy in Boulder

Abster Productions’ version
of Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer Prize winning
play does a great job of making these characters our intimate acquaintances.(One must rush to qualify this by
saying that the tour, which was initiated by Denver Center Attractions at The
Ellie Caulkins Opera House, was truly magnificent on a grand scale.)

Peter Hughes’ direction of
this production, now on view at The Dairy in Boulder, is superb. In his
production the opening scene is paced more in real time than the quickly paced one
done by the touring company’s director. As a result we get a better handle on
who Beverly Weston (played here by Wade
Livingston) really was in relation to the relatives who are soon to come
pouring back into his Oklahoma farmhouse.

Anne Oberbroeckling as Violet Weston

Annie Oberbroeckling’s performance
in the role of Violet Weston is a tour de force. The Denver audience has never
before seen this actor as such a seething cauldron of rage. Awesome work!

Abby Apple Boes really cuts
loose in the role of Barbara Fordham letting us see how powerful she can be in a
serious dramatic role. Brava!

Missy Moore turns in yet
another stunning performance in the role of Karen Weston. It’s great to see
that this actor is as adept at serious drama as she is at comedy.

Matt Maxwell’s portrayal of
Steve Heidebrecht is intentionally slimy. I’m sure that the “edginess” of this
character’s creepy pedophilia becomes more off-putting with every performance.

Shane Delavan is brilliant as
Little Charles, the dim bulb of the family.

Ken Paul turns in some of his
best dramatic work to date as Sheriff Deon Gilbeau.

Kerry Beebe, a native
Oklahoman herself created a very credible Mattie Fae Aiken.

Luke Allen Terry’s sound
design is superb.

Ann Piano’s lighting design is an example of her finest!

This three-act play is rather long, but the metaphor it presents will
give you plenty to grind your teeth about concerning the karma built up by this
country as it pursued its Manifest Destiny.

Amanda Kowalski plays Johnna
Monevata, the only Native American character, with observant compassion and
patience… and one notable exception.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

The Arvada Center for the
Arts:9/11 – 9/30

The opener for The Arvada
Center’s 2012-2013 season is based on a 1988 film that starred Steve Martin and
Michael Caine as two con men on the French Riviera. One is suave and debonair
and the other is a small-time swindler. The movie was good. The Broadway
musical is AWESOME!

Dear reader, you have to
know right from the get go that this is going to be a long list of accolades.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels directed
by Rod A. Lansberry on September 11 running through September 30 in the Main
Stage Theater. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is written by Jeffrey Lane
with music and lyrics by David Yazbek. Performances are Tuesday – Saturday at
7:30 pm, Wednesday at 1pm, Saturday and Sunday at 2pm. Preview
performances are September 7 - 9. Moderated talkbacks with the cast are offered
on Friday, September 21 after 7:30 pm show and Wednesday, September 26 after
1:00 pm show. For more information and to purchase tickets, go to www.arvadacenter.org
or call 720-898-7200.Marlowe's Musings

Sunday, September 9, 2012

La
Cage Aux Folles

Denver
Center Attractions: Through 9/16

The
touring production of “La Cage Aux Folles,” which is now on view at The Buell
Theatre, has much to recommend despite one flaw. Dashing star of stage and
screen George Hamilton has a difficult time projecting one very important
aspect of his character, Georges. This character is an impresario par
excellence and Mr. Hamilton did not have much of that show biz energy and flair
going for him on the night this reviewer was in attendance. Perhaps he was in
poor health that evening. One hopes that his energy level improved by the
following evening.

Left to right: George Hamilton and Christopher Sieber

Christopher Sieber is, however, brilliant as Albin. His acting,
singing and dancing of this beloved character are formidable. Especially in the big numbers such as: “A Little More Mascara,” “I am What I Am” and “The Best of
Times!”

Also memorable are the Cagelles, who first seen in silhouette backlit
in Nick Richings’ sexy orange lighting design turn in some phenomenal dancing
and singing. Their dancing is of the limber, athletic variety that sometimes
even leans into that of the contortionist! Awesome work!

Gay Marshall is a
brilliant Jacqueline full of sparkle and fizz!

If you are a “La Cage Aux Folles”
virgin and have not seen it on Broadway then I would say run to get a ticket.
The show is always the quintessential draw for the GLBT community. Tim
Shartall’s Scenic Design worked superbly allowing the members of the orchestra
to appear in two boxes flanking the proscenium of Georges’ and Albin’s St.
Tropez nightclub.

Matthew Wright’s costume design is a fantasia of colorful
fashion that is heightened by the Wig and Makeup design of Richard Mawbey. Nevertheless…
if you, like this reviewer, have seen one or more of this grand show’s incarnations
on Broadway you could just be a little disappointed in the uneven nature of the
performances. Regardless, you’re going to be singing those great old Jerry
Herman tunes for days!

“The Three Penny Opera” by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht is a challenging work for any theatre. In spite of several
flashes of brilliance Miners Alley Playhouse’s production disappoints.Let’s
start with some of the “flashes of brilliance.”

Megan Van de Hey as Jenny

Megan Van de Hey is outstanding! Whenever
she is onstage the show rocks! When she is offstage one yearns for her
reappearance. Van de Hey portrays Jenny, the role played by Lotte Lenya at “The
Three Penny Opera’s” premiere. Ms. Van de Hey consistently delivers her vocals
–especially “Solomon Song” –with a skill and brio, which is sometimes lacking
or at least inconsistent in the performances of other members of the cast. When
this actor is onstage it’s impossible to take his eyes off her. One feels
cheated when she is shuffled-however correctly- into the back row of dancers.
Whether she is walking the tightrope of the small wall separating the stage and
the audience or telling a man in the front row, ”Don’t be shy,” while facing
him upside down in a dip provided by the arms of Rich Cowden’s McHeath, this artist
dazzles us.

Don Deveux (Mr. Peachum) did well in his singing of the a cappella
rendition of “The Song about Human Futility,” which was arranged by Music
Director Boni McIntyre.

Robert L. Gale’s Minstrel of Many Voices
is exceptional. This musician accompanies the actors onstage playing everything
from accordion to bassoon along with Donna Debreceni’s keyboards.

Rich Cowden’s McHeath is well sung and acted. One of the highlights
of the show is “Cannon Song,” Cowden’s and Verl
Hite’s (Jackie ”Tiger” Brown) exuberant duet.

Mel Horton really unleashes her voice in the role of Mrs. Peachum
in the scene in which she enlists Jenny’s aid in betraying McHeath.

Left to right: Juliette Peterson, Rich Cowden and Erica Lyn Cain

Juliette Peterson (Lucy) sports a superb soprano. So does Erica Lyn Cain (Polly.) “Jealousy Duet,”
their operatic catfight, gives both artists a chance to show off their fine
set(s) of pipes.

Michael Ingram and Daniel
Traylor turn in good performances in supporting roles.

Although no one is credited with the
choreography in the show, there is some and it is sometimes too big for the
stage. In one moment Mr. Deveux was unable to complete a move because he had
come to the end of the playing space and simply had to drop the intended stage
movement.

The show succeeds in
its garish depiction of the underbelly of society, which is well established
visually with the tawdry costuming (Erin
Leonard), grave-digging choreography and eye sore of a poster-splattered
brick and corrugated steel scenic design (Richard
L. Pegg.)

Director El Armstrong nails
the play’s core concept, that ‘the lack of money’ is the root of all evil’
superbly. One might, however, wish for a quicker pacing of the relentlessly
vulgar proceedings.

Brecht and Weill’s works
are intended to put forth philosophical ideas about society’s flaws more as
simple straightforward polemic rather than any kind of an entertainment. One
goes to this work knowing that Weill’s and Brecht’s “opera” is the antithesis
of most of today’s musicals that wish only to be the most popular ‘entertaining’
fluff.Whether one is a fan of
this show or not – and I must confess to not being one of its greatest
aficionados- the vocals need to be well sung. Those of Ms. Van de Hey are such
a banquet of brilliant virtuosity that the other cast members’ acting and
singing suffer by comparison. One must admit to a longing for the operatically
trained voices in Central City Opera’s production of this work several seasons
ago as well as of their 2011 production of “The Seven Deadly Sins,” which was
the last collaboration of Weill and Brecht.

Marlowe's MusingsThe lighting design done for Miners
Alley’s production by Karilyn Pytel
and Jonathan Scott-McKean is good
for the most part. However … one wishes that there were more of an effort to
create the look of those distorted faces in the paintings of the German
expressionists of this period such as James Ensor. Possibly that could have
been achieved as it was some years ago at Central City Opera with the use of
footlights.

Although older
theatergoers may find flaws, “Three Penny Opera” virgins will be enthralled.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

A Happy End

AHE Development

Iddo Netanyahu’s new play “A
Happy End” is currently being showcased at the Buntport Theatre at 8th and Lipan. Kent Thompson was the
first to present Netanyahu’s work in this country in May 2011 as a
staged-reading at the Denver Center Theatre Company. The playwright is the
younger brother of the Israeli Prime Minister. Besides being a writer Netanyahu
is also a physician. He studied at South High School when his father was a
professor at D.U.

The play is directed by renowned actor/director
Ami Dayan, whose work in the past
includes the critically acclaimed adaptation of“A Tale of a Tiger” by Dario Fo. The Denver Center Theatre
Company, The Colorado Shakespeare Festival and the Roe Green Foundation have commissioned
Dayan. His directorial credits In New York City include: “The Man Himself,”
“Conviction” and “Masked.”

Left to right above: Mary Cates and James O'Hagan-Murphy

Left to right seated: Kevin Hart, Zuzana Stivinova, Evan Duggan and Heather Taylor

The play deals with a Jewish family’s
dilemma in 1932 Berlin just after the elections that put Adolph Hitler into
power. Should they leave their home in Germany to go to Paris or the United
States or stay? It asks us as audience what would we do in a similar situation.
We all know the tragic events, which occurred shortly thereafter. Still it is a
provocative and disturbing question. How can one know when a corrupt political
figure will choose to create a horror such as the Holocaust?

Zuzana Stivinova portrays Leah Erdmann, a wife and mother, who like
her physicist husband and young son cannot imagine that any election could
result in such a heinous and inhuman outcome as what would soon occur. Ms.
Stivinova has been nominated three times for the Czechoslovakian Film Academy
Award. Her range as an actor is astounding and she delivers the lines in Mr.
Netanyahu’s play as if it were classical music. Few actors in this country can
move from pianissimo to forte or fortissimo with such aplomb and grace.
Likewise her facial expressions, physical stage movement and vocal tonality
create an impression that is utterly congruent.

Left to right: Kevin Hart and Zuzana Stivinova

Kevin Hart is superb in his portrayal of physicist Mark Erdmann, Leah’s husband.

James O’Hagan-Murphy’s portrayal of Dieter Kraft,
Erdmann’s colleague, is some of his best work to date.

Left to right: James O'Hagan-Murphy and Zuzana Stivinova

Mary Cates, Heather Taylor and Evan Duggan round out
the cast with very fine supporting work.

The characters are ordinary people
like you and me. They are going about their lives in the way they always have,
working hard, playing hard and using their God-given talents to create as much of
a beautiful legacy as they can. So there are more questions than answers here.
People live in a world of quotidian pleasures, pains and problems.

Often what is really going on in
our world is not even carried in the media. Many times government owned media
provides us with propaganda and smoke screens at just those moments when one
most needs to know the truth. The play is very honest in its approach to the
subject. It is always tempting to put forth a bit of creative deceit in order
to promote a holy cause. This is never the case in Netanyahu’s play.

The characters in his play do not include
the beasts that will soon devastate the world. We only hear the bestial
rhetoric via radio or see intimate mirror images of the vast tsunami of anti
Semitism about to inundate through small incidents of bigotry and exclusion.

The characters of the play see only
the incremental changes leading up to the Holocaust. True, we as audience have
the ability to look into the rear view mirror of history. But one must never be
too arrogant or smug while thinking this will never happen to me. In a not so
esoteric way the playwright asks us as theatergoers “What would you really do in such circumstances?”

Without spoiling your discovery of
this fine artistic work this reviewer will just say that the playwright engages
the playgoer at the top of the play in a rather unusual fashion. When you go,
and you must, you will see what I mean. It’s always refreshing to see new
avenues for setting up a story onstage.

This is a cautionary tale told in
retrospect with chutzpah and zeal by a team of very fine artists. The songs
sung by Ms Stivinova in bridging the scenes evoke the era in auditory terms.
The visuals provided in projections are random and generic. Perhaps this is
best, making one feel the quotidian
aspect of life in Germany in 1932. In many ways the looming horror is kept just
far enough at bay so that the characters in the play are not able to put the
pieces of the puzzle together.

Netenyahu, Stivinova and Dayan
wield their theatrical sword with a powerful and energetic grace.

We are privileged to live in a free
country. We pray that religious fanaticism, political interference and media
brainwashing never rise up creating times of persecution in future. Playwright
Netanyahu admonishes us all to be constantly alert, aware, and zealous in the
protection of the freedoms that keep all of humanity safe.

This show cries out to be seen.

AHE Development presents

“A Happy End”

Berlin 1932, a Jewish couple must decide on an unknown future outside
Germany or to stay put when Hitler comes to power.